Meet the man using magic mushrooms to treat his 'cluster headaches'

It's an illness so unbearable that sufferers in the US take their own lives at a rate 20 times the national average.

The cluster headache, or "suicide headache" as it's known, affects fewer than one in 1000 people and is referred to by experts as the most painful condition known to medical science.

There is no official cure but some sufferers believe they have found relief in psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms.

US filmmaker Tyler Mann has been treating his cluster headaches with magic mushrooms for three years and says without his self-prescribed psychedelic medicine he may have become another casualty of the debilitating illness.

"I can absolutely tell you that magic mushrooms are one of the reasons I'm still here. Cluster headaches are … I wouldn't wish that pain on anybody."

Mr Mann discovered the unusual treatment method through a Facebook community of other sufferers. Many of these "clusterheads" had been experimenting with drugs such as magic mushrooms, LSD and DMT and saw a reduction in headache episodes. In some cases the pain completely disappeared.

Magic mushrooms worked for Mr Mann on the first try and since then he has been self-medicating twice a week when he falls ill with one to three grams of the psychedelic he calls a "miracle drug".

For those unaware of the potency of psilocybin mushrooms - that is not an amount to be sniffed at. Mr Mann agrees "it's a big dose" and says he definitely gets high, but says he and the other users enjoy the experience.

He's currently shooting a documentary called Clusterheads about the community of people treating their illness with psychedelics. He hopes the film will go some way to convincing lawmakers in the states to recognise magic mushrooms and other drugs as a treatment method.

Right now one of the only legal ways to abort an attack is the inhalation of highly-concentrated oxygen, however it is expensive and hard to obtain because it is not covered under medical insurance. Therefore, Mr Mann says it's easier for him to get magic mushrooms.

It may be illegal but he says it's worth the risk for him and the other "clusterheads".

"This is the risk we have to take to keep from being in pain and I'm totally okay with that."